So I’m thinking pre-graduation for Team Ebisu (Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon) and Team Hana (Hanabi, Chiyako, and Ranmaru) on a field trip / survival training / group project of sorts with Iruka-sensei as the bewildered chaperone.

And while they’re not on par with Team Seven, these six are a heady mixture ready to blow. So maybe it’s something like six soon to be genin are sent on a D-rank mission–considering rising tensions and potential war on the horizon, official genin are being used on more critical missions and students are being transitioned into proper mission etiquette, etc. etc.

Anyway, temporary Team Iruka shenanigans. On the one hand, Iruka is very responsible so he shouldn’t lose track of his team (like a certain elite jounin who will not be named), but on the other hand the six students he has on his temporary team are very… strong-willed. And powerful.

Poor Iruka. He probably thought he was done with the chaos when Konoha Twelve graduated. -_-

I’m not sure what D-rank is… I mean catching Tora the cat seems like the obvious choice, but with a Hyuuga and an Aburame and four other to-be-genin, it would be overkill wouldn’t it? Then again, that’s the only D-rank mission iconic enough to be shenanigans-filled so…

Yeah. I mean, its the Inuzuka that really make catching Tora a cakewalk, and since this is without Hana as jounin sensei, it would be enough of a challenge. It’s not as if the Hyuuga train to specifically tell different cats apart, and I feel like Chiyako’s hives are a little more combat specialized than tracking specialized. I mean, still some tracking because kikaichu, but not as good as Shino.

So catching Tora. This damn cat has gotten especially wily over the years and its not like Konoha bystanders are going to help temporary Team Iruka with it (its a right of passage, and no one else wants to touch that hell cat) no matter how fond of Iruka-sensei everyone is.

I don’t know what else specifically I want from this story. So here’s a summary to finish things off:

The Homework

Team Iruka receive the mission to find Tora the cat with the biggest stakes on the line:

No, not impressing the Fire Lady, passing the class!

(Or, Konohamaru accidentally spends a day with his uncle, Moegi fights her fears, Udon learns more about himself, Ranmaru makes a new friend, Hanabi loses some dignity, Chiyako takes a chance, and Iruka-sensei can’t catch a break.)

Given Shikako has literally received a promotion due to her sensing ability, and seeing as how Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke have the three chakra signatures most familiar to her, it would be ridiculously stupid for them to try to use stealth and follow her. Which is why they outsource it.

Or… try to. Team Ebisu and Team Hana are not making it easy.

“Okay, Boss,” Konohamaru says, entirely cooperative, “but you know we’re not gonna do this for free.”

Naruto looks at him, stunned.

“We’re officially shinobi of Konoha,” Moegi explains, only a little smugly, “And what you’re describing sounds an awful lot like a mission.”

“What?” Naruto bursts out, “You cheapskates!”

“It’s probably a D-rank, maybe a C-rank at most,” Hanabi says with a pointed glance at Sasuke, “It’s not like you can’t afford it.”

Admittedly, Sasuke is disgustingly rich even without all of the pay he’s received from near constant patrols interspersed with A-ranks and S-ranks. So it’s true that alone he could pay for two C-ranks easily.

“Just pay them,” Shikamaru mutters, jabbing his elbow into Sasuke’s ribs, “Unless you don’t want to know you Shikako’s dating.” As if Shikamaru himself weren’t the most invested in finding out who his sister is involved with.

“Fine, but Naruto’s paying the other team,” because there are only two teenagers with more A-ranks and S-ranks than Sasuke, and both of them are his teammates.

“That’s okay,” Naruto agrees affably, “I had some down time during a mission in Tanzaku Gai two weeks ago.”

Unfortunately, Naruto’s good luck does not extend to the two genin teams. Or maybe it does, because their self-styled mission–and their pay–extends beyond one day.

It takes a month.

And mostly? They figure it out via a giant process of elimination.

~

A/N: So… I really did want to keep going but then I realized… I had no idea how yet? And I didn’t want this to just languish on my laptop for however long it took so… here’s this tiny installment. Hope ya’ll enjoy–especially you, @openace who reminded me about this particular DoS remix series.

Anyway, given how Konoha is super fond of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” when it comes to team configurations and the whole “Shikako’s stray thoughts are actually hella important foreshadowing” I figured that while the Konohamaru corps became Team Ebisu as in canon, the other kids would be the Team Eight remake–that is, this time it’s Aburame-Hyuuga-genjutsu specialist genin with an Inuzuka sensei. And I like to think that Hana gets promoted during the time skip and, in the same way Kurenai became a sensei, she does too. Also, I just really like the idea of each of the Haimaru brothers having a specific genin they watch over.

I suppose where it’s implied that Kurenai’s Team Eight is a tracking team eventually specializing in hunting down missing nin/enemies, Team Hana would be more a tracking team eventually specializing in search and rescue kind missions.